Bike Brand argument

What does your bike say about you?

Are certain types of people attracted to certain bike brands? For instance, if you get a Colnago, are you a person of discerning taste who appreciates cycling heritage, or did the shop salesman see you drive up in your BMW, adopt a fake Italian accent, change his name badge to Mario, and sell you a $6,000 muffin transporter?

89 Comments

Wheelsucker

What happened to Colnago, great brand in the 70, 80. and 90s- really dropped the ball, just doing new paint jobs now..

Wheelsucker

Looks are for guys who want a top bike for a reasonable price. 585 frame can be had for $2000 if you shop around and a 565 (stiffer BB) can be had for about $1200 if you find them online. I ride a Look 565. Cannondales, for hammer heads who like to sprint and dont care about Euro shite. Giant and Specialized, the everymans bikes. Great bikes, great value… Trek, for guys who think Lance is clean. Cervelo – for Aero geeks. Litespeed, Seven and Serotta you have to make over $250k a year and be over 50 years old.

All the other Euro and Boutique brand bikes (Canyon, Ibis, Nago, Pinarello, Isaac, Cyfac, Ridley, BMC, etc) are the same to me. Nice bikes but way overpriced and with terrible customer service. No way anyone can tell the difference between any of these bikes and a top end specialized or giant. Only the price tag…

Wheelsucker

Seems like the higher priced the bike, the slower the rider. Cannondale Caad 9 with SRM = very fast racer. Pinnarello Prince Carbon with Zipp wheels and crank and ceramic everything = very slow rich guy who shopped at R&A.

Wheelsucker

why didn’t anyone tell me about this. i would have killed this race.

The DONUT DERBY is a fun race with rest stops every 12 miles where racers can get water, use the bathroom, and get DONUTS. For every donut eaten, three minutes are deducted from your official finish time. There are only 2 rules: All donuts must be eaten in the Donut Zone and if you chum a field, you’re DNF.

Wheelsucker

Real riders aren’t attracted to any particular brand. It’s just a tool, they’ll do well on any manufacturer’s top end ride and really don’t care which it is.

Wheelsucker

for less than 2K you can get a house brand carbon frame from a catalog with full dura ace – i,e scattante, douglas, tomasso etc. these frames look suspiciously like other high end brands, and everyone knows just about all of those carbon frames come from the same factory. anyone have experience with them? maybe they are heavy, and flexy, and poorly made…or maybe they are great and cheap because they don’t have to support a huge marketing budget.

Wheelsucker

I picked up a Seven for $1500 last week. A few years old, not the lightest, but possibly the best riding bike I have owned. Cervelo owners with the breakaway Chinese forks should punch themselves in the face for paying $4 for outsourced crappola.

RIDE QUALITY…. it is still a relevant factor in a bicycle purchasing decision. Categorizing riders based on thier ride is pretty funny though. Cervelo owners – overpaid sheep who read velonews exclusively and harbor Empire man crushes??

Tri Guy OG

I like my Cervelo either gold or platinum plated while I cruise the Queen’s highway buffetted by the Kona winds at 19mph….
Why punch myself? Cervelo’s are the best bike, they even say so.

Wheelsucker

bling – BMC Look

semi bling – Ridley

best do everything – Cannondale

runner up do everything – Giant

Everything is too small

Brand means nothing to me. I just something that is big enough to fit me. So far Giant XL frames does the trick. Not many brands make a 64 cm frame anymore. Do they still make the bamboo bike? That is what I want. To ride hard wood (instead of carbon).

Wheelsucker

THE Van Dessel Cross happening this year? If not I gots to travel to PA for the Nittany… Cross is almost here.

Wheelsucker

Cannondale says “MY FIRST RACE BIKE! Thanks, Mom.”

end of story. Get a real job/bike, until then best of luck in the “c” races.

Wheelsucker

Pretty funny… Tell that to Fiordifrutta, Targetraining, WS United to name a few. Cannondale stands for performance over flash.

Caad9 has won more NE Pro1-2 regional races than any other bike this year.

Wheelsucker

Going to be great. I grew up in Windham and the two loops are very nice and very challenging. Great roads, scenery and lots of good places to eat before and after the race. The course will have lots of climbing with plenty of flats, rollers and downhills to attack on. Day two will have a monster climb after we descend for about 7 miles down 23. However, day one looks to be the tougher of the two with more climbs throughout the race (County Rte 10 east is not easy) Should be a great time. Hopefully more sign up.

Watch for the locals – when they go to the front the climbs are coming…

donutsucker

I feel like poser donut eaters were eating Krispy Cremes but they were never dedicated doughnut people so when the next trendy chain opened they left Krispy for fudgeberry farms or some other crappy yogurt shop. This is the pinarello of donuts.

Dunkin Donuts is a great, old school spot, but they have recently tried to class their stores up by offering sandwiches, etc. Still a good option, but not what it was. Maybe the Cannondale or Giant of donuts.

The Donut Plant is for fixie dorks who want to go to inconvenient places to buy high priced donuts in odd flavors. They also use the sophisticated spelling – ‘doughnut’. These clowns wouldn’t know a good pastry if it bit them on their fat ass. This is the over-priced craft bike, the steel framed fixie made by a recovering meth addict living in an abandoned factory in Red Hook making frames and selling them for $5k a pop. The average guy hasn’t heard of them just like that obscure Danish punk band that is blaring over the rider’s ipod.

Me, I’m a Tim Hortons man. Great donuts, old school atmosphere, and named after a hockey player that was killed drunk driving his Lamborghini. His reckless lifestyle epitomises the donut eater’s “throw caution to the wind” attitude.

empire man crush

a used seven? isn’t that sort of like buying someone else’s retainer?

the wolf fork debacle is a huge gaffe by cervelo, no question, but if you don’t think you’ll go faster on one of their aero frames than you would on a seven with a 24 inch “custom” headtube, you’re dead wrong. you might want to warranty the fork, though, so you don’t end up just plain dead.

Seven

Alrightey then – somebody else’s used retainer with the 24 inch head tube Seven vs. your Chinee makey breakapart Cervelo any day my man… ANY DAY. then we will see who is more Aero. trigeek…

Wheelsucker

Brand means nothing if you ride a medium size frame – they pretty much all have a 73 degree head angle with 43mm of offset. However, on larger or smaller frames most brands change the head angles drastically but use the same forks. So they handle like shit. That’s one thing that’s great about Cervelo – every size has the same handling characteristics.

JG

Catskills now a 3/4 race and Pro1-3. Interesting. Too bad Dieter is not getting rider support for this one. The loops are much better than Battenkill and closer to NYC/NJ (2.5hours).

At least the 3/4s now have a 70-90 man field.

Wheelsucker

dude – you were SOLD. You overpaid for outsourced crap manufactured by a Taiwanese or Chinese company with questionable quality controls. Why not just send your favorite CSC riders crisp $100 bills for spending money, then go out and buy a well built bike that fits you with the rest of the money?

baby cobra

You guys are pretty amusing. Bitching about stuff thats fabricated in Asia. Hate to break it, most bikes are fabricated there at this point. And honestly, the brands made in America are overpriced and not very good.

Bikes don’t make you fast anyways. Perhaps thats your problem. Go ahead and buy some fancy as bike. you’re just gonna break it, scratch it, generally feel bad about using it.

Seven

there is an american company called Parlee that makes some pretty nice bikes right here in the gool old U.S.A. Moots, Seven and Lynskey are a few others. GI Joe you are a sheep. I hope you don’t get hurt too b’aaaaad when your Chinese fork snaps.

Wheelsucker

i don’t think the guy even races. he wouldn’t be caught dead in a park race and he talks shit about the out of town races too. someone who races and places well has no motivation to be a negative asshole.

GI Joe

“someone who races and places well has no motivation to be a negative asshole.”

Exactly.

I get it now. The suckier racers are always mad and attack online because they can’t do it on the road.

If you trained more you’d be able to manage all that angry frustration and you might get faster.

FYI – I don’t ride a Cervelo and I like lamb not sheep.

baby cobra

Yes, yes I do race.

Don’t get all defensive just cause you purchased an exceptionally expensive bike and are still uber slow.

Wheelsucker

Simple reason to buy an American bike: They are as good as anything made and you can get it repaired (or more likely replaced) really easily. Try that with a European bike. Cannondales are awesome, but I am sure that the others are good too.

Wheelsuxer

Just face the facts, Giant makes all your damn bikes, …you’re paying more for different paint jobs…but whatever serves you.
As if saving a gram of weight for an extra $3G is gonna make you win a race anyway…

Baldwin

Independent Fabrications makes good bikes, kind of expensive but you know to whom and where your money is going. If you buy an Asian bike the only Americans who make any money are marketing executives.

Wheelsucka

Baldwin! Why would we care whether we support Americans, Asians, or Europeans with our money? To care more about someone’s welfare based on the longitude and latitude of where they were born is perverse!

Wheelsucker

1 1058 Gary Steinberg Mahwah, NJ
2 1062 Juan Pimentel Maywood, NJ
3 1068 Eric Neely Cumming, GA
4 1072 Christopher Chaput Brooklyn, NY
5 1074 Ryan Halloran Kansas City, MO
6 1079 Ernest Tautkus Uncasville, CT
7 1081 Nick Pignatello Griswold, CT
8 1087 Douglas McKeon East Longmeadow, MA
9 1089 Christian Eager Somerville, MA
10 1091 Michael Norton Monson, MA
11 1092 C Bryant Crabtree Clarksville, TN
12 1093 James Bender Berkeley, CA
13 1101 Ricardo Otero Park Ridge, IL
13 1101 Thomas Wood Philadelphia, PA
15 1107 Joey Mesa Oklahoma City, OK

Wheelsucker

1 1084 James Morrison Brighton, MA
2 1101 David Fierro Uncasville, CT
3 1106 James Combs Cambridge, MA
4 1107 Shawn Kane Jacksonville, NC
5 1113 Christopher Laflamme Westbrook, ME
6 1118 Wes Douglas Birmingham, AL
6 1118 Aaron Rennert Holladay, UT
8 1120 Gregory Olsen New York, NY
9 1123 Jonathan Bernhard Newburyport, MA
9 1123 Peter Hurst New Canaan, CT
11 1124 Colin Prensky New York, NY
12 1125 Angel Martinez Morganville, NJ
13 1126 Brian Gabele New York, NY
14 1127 Pascal Sauvayre New York, NY
15 1129 Ernest Tautkus Uncasville, CT

Wheelsucker

Please post random information so that we can post why you’re stupid.

It’s great to know that Tri-State area riders are in the top 1200’s.

Did your child come in 9th place at the regional spelling bee?

Wheelsucker

while i agree that the post you refer to is pointless, and the uscf rankings are totally lame and meaningless, the riders listed are the top 15 in the country (cat3) based on the confusing points system. just fact checking.

Wheelsucker

why is it pointless? the northeast is obviously the strongest cycling region in the country. and our weather ain’t even that great. super competitive out here.

JG

Most of these guys will upgrade next year so who cares. Its the end of the season and there is no reason to upgrade in Sept. The only big races left are Catskills and Jamestown that I can think of. Taukest, Fierro, Pignatello, Olson, Gabele, Laflamme, Morrison, these guys are so strong and deserve praise after great seasons.

I bet next year you see most of them in the 2s. BTW – Adler is racing the 1-3 at Catskills so you cant call them sandbaggers.

Frustrated 4

Can you please race the f’ing 1,2,3 race? There are some very strong, very accomplished (everything is relative) 3’s signed up for the 3-4 race. Can you dudes man up for this one please and let us grab some glory here?

Aaron

Dieter says that most of the 3s are doing the 3/4 race. It’s a bummer that the fields were combined so late with no way of knowing who’s doing which. I’m most interested in racing other 3s so I’ll probably go with the 3/4. Two 82 mile “races” with 5-10 guys in the 123 field isn’t my idea of fun. Done it before. Not worth it.

JG

I think most of the 3s have no desire to race 85 miles 2 days in a row against Dan Cassidy and Justine Lindine etc.. If you get dropped on mile 25 in that race you probably wont make the time cut if there is one. That field is a huge, huge jump for some of us who are not the strongest climbers. Racing a 1-3 race in this kind of terrain is nothing like a 1-3 race at say prospect park …

The 3/4 race will be fun and even if the 4s do not win the GC they are still racing eachother for upgrades no and, can get a taste of some of the strongest 3s (Ernest T, Dave Fierro, Aaron, Peter Hurst etc.).

GOlsen

I am pretty sure Dieter is going to keep the 3/4 as is and redistribute the 1’s, 2’s 3’s and 4’s from the 30, 40 and 50 plus fields in the 3/4 field and 1,2,3 field.
Registration wasn’t great at Battenkill the first year either and Dieter has since built that into one of the best one day races in the Northeast.
There are a bunch of names in that “Top 15 Cat 3 Road Ranking” post from before that can easily race up with the 1,2,3 field. And several others that I know are super strong — especially in this type of event. Hope to see some of you guys make the jump up (especially if you plan on upgrading next year) because I like racing with you guys and selfishly would like to see the size of our field increase.

JFG

The thought of doing that nasty climb up County Route 10 twice with the 1s and 2s is flat out scarey. I know this course – I grew up in Windham. Once we turn off the 23 the climbs is very tough and the 1-3s do it twice before moving on to the rest of the course.

I would not be suprised if some of the strongest 3s get shelled the second time up from the lead group (Lindine trains daily on these roads). Day 2 I think you have to climb Susquehanna Turnpike twice in the Pro1-3. Thats a steady 8% climb for 7 plus miles. No thanks…

I would rather hang with the 3s and 4s and have fun. The race simply will not be fun for most 3s in that field.

Wheelsucker

…4’s (who would race 4/5 races in a heartbeat) want the 3’s to race the 1/2/3? Oh yeah. So they can upgrade to a 3 and a)not be competitive with the other 3’s that they wanted to not race against in the first place, and b)in turn be a 3 that other 4’s will be telling to race the 1/2/3 instead of the 3/4. Seems to be not so well thought out.

Clubber

I posted a comment about that and got flamed (he was on a bike with cameras and it was a loaner etc etc). Looks like they guys can ride what they want frames and wheels.

I wonder why a Fuji if he could get a free DeRosa or any bike for that matter.

Wheelsucker

Interesting how the Exodus Riders (Tautkest, Fierro and Pignatello) all who have the points to upgrade to Cat2 have not gone up to race the Pro1-3. I can understand some of the newer Cat3s racing the 3/4 but these guys each have at least 30 upgrade points this year.

Oh well – Maybe this is their last shot at glory before going to the next level…

Ernest Tautkus

Who really cares when we up-grade?
Lots of riders go up too fast. They get some points and off they go, then they realise wow this sucks. If your not killing it in your group and winning races and learning How to win races what do you think is going to happen when you move up in the middle of a season and your r.r. go from 50miles fast to 80miles super fast.mmmm
You might want to have a plan, cuz if you don’t odds are your fucked, I see it all the time.
So i think i can speak for all of us here at Exodus and for whoever really gives a shit. We are going to keep Winning for the rest of 08 in cat 3. Then train all winter, and be ready to race cat2 and there will be some good results for next year.
I like to keep the chit chat to a minimum, basicly everything that needs to be said is done by monday morning when you looking up race results, anything after that and your just wasting time. You could be eating, sleeping or training?
All the best ..Ern

ernest tautkus

For me in 2008 there are 6 more races on the road bike. Plus the Crit Finals in Vegas. Ten bucks says I will win 1 out of the 6 maybe Vegas !!!
All the best…ern

David Fierro

I am flattered that all you guys think I am a sandbagger, but if you actually follow the USCF cycling rules I only have 19 upgrade points. 25 points are needed to be considered for upgrading from 3 to 2. Yes some guys can and have upgraded with less points, but they are constantly spit out of the p/1/2 field and not finishing, and not having any FUN. Anyone that actually talks to me before, during and after races, will probably tell you I am all about working hard and having a blast doing it. So I have one win and few top placings, with lots of consistent and aggressive racing, how does that make me a sandbagger. I do plan on upgrading at after this season, when I feel like I am ready to suffer with the big boys. I think everyone needs to take a step back and remember that we all ride/race our bikes because it is fun and healthy. And instead of talking shit here on this site, please find me at any of the many races that I am at so we can talk like men, and race like true competitors.
Happy and Safe Riding
David Fierro

Exodus Road Racing.

Ernest Tautkus

Fuck it !!! Hot news just came in Lance is coming back and All of Exodus is going to stay at cat 3 with J. Morrison for one more year!!!!!!!
Great News. hahahah
See ya next spring

r_mutt

gios’ shorter top tube geometry as i have tyrannosaurus rex-like short arms- oh- am i in the wrong thread? i must have mistakenly thought this was a bike brand thread…

Swamp Thing

You SLEPT on the AQUA CHOP and now you’re gonna sleep with the FISH when THE NOREASTER comes.

WASHINGTON BULLETS.

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